Thomas Blanchard doesn’t paint like normal artists do. Instead of painstakingly applying colors to a canvas with a brush, he dumps gallons of brightly colored paints into a giant tank filled with oils and other liquids, producing psychedelic waterfalls of color that could never hang in an art gallery.

Scientists trying to unlock the secrets of our universe’s origin need to look no further than the photography studio of Thomas Blanchard and Oilhack. By mixing nothing more than paints, oil, and soap, the artists manage to create colorful miniature universes full of strange, tiny alien worlds.

The next time NASA releases spectacular footage from a flyover of a distant planet or moon, you’ll have good reason to wonder if what you’re watching actually came from a spaceship, or from a microscope in a studio filming oil, paint, and liquid soap all mixed together.